In the wake of a hurricane or storm, engineering professor Tracy Kijewski-Correa is often running towards the destruction. She's called in to assess damage to buildings and to see which structures weathered the storm well. The reconnaissance allows her to makes suggestions to building codes and regulations to improve resilience.But she also wants to help communities prepare for storms before they happen, so she, along with a team of colleagues, developed NJcoast. The website allows first responders, emergency managers, and municipal planners to have access to accurate storm hazard projections before the storm hits so they can make informed disaster preparedness decisions. NJcoast has completed pilot testing and is now available across the state of New Jersey, where it will make coastal communities more resilient to storms.Learn more about how Professor Kijewski-Correa is fighting to protect our communities: https://ntrda.me/ProtectOurCommunity

It has been 50 years since the Fair Housing Act made discrimination in buying and selling homes illegal. Fifty years since Edward Brooke, the first African-American senator from Massachusetts, testified that upon his return from World War II, no one would sell him a home because of his race. And 50 years since the act was passed, without debate, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But even after 50 years, there’s still discrimination and scheming against minorities who wish to own homes.Notre Dame Law professor Judy Fox is fighting to combat predatory lending and contract for deed, or rent-to-own, schemes that are prevalent in minority neighborhoods. Last year, in Illinois, she was instrumental in passing statewide legislation against these contracts. Similar efforts are underway in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. And at the Notre Dame Economic Justice Clinic, she’s also fighting individual cases.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, democracies in post-Soviet territories was fragile, and corruption ruled government, business and education. People were killed for speaking out and demanding justice. But there was a beacon of hope — Catholic universities. Because of their spirit of independence, these institutions could teach radical ideas like human dignity, freedom of speech, transparency and justice.Since 2003, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame has made a commitment to Catholic education in Eastern Europe bringing together administrators and faculty at seven universities to build bridges that will help them speak truth to power.Learn more: https://ntrda.me/FreedomofThought

Since 1993, the International Atomic Energy Agency has tracked 2,500 trafficking cases of nuclear material. While there has yet to be a detonation of a dirty bomb, the threat remains present. In the unlikely event of a nuclear attack on American soil, Notre Dame engineering professor Antonio Simonetti makes one thing clear: The perpetrator could and would be found.Simonetti is a geochemist who specializes in characterizing the chemical and isotopic composition of materials. Traditionally, that involves studying rocks and minerals, which Simonetti did for many years. In 2011 he pivoted to assess nuclear materials like trinitite at the request of National Nuclear Security Agency. In that role, he used laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to study blast melt from the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico in 1945 and precisely identified where remnants of plutonium fuel resided after the explosion.More: http://ntrda.me/FTProtectOurCountry

In Dandora, Kenya, a sprawling neighborhood in Nairobi, housing for 250,000 people is built around the city’s largest dumpsite. Life near a large trash heap exposes the population to problems ranging from illness to unemployment to extreme poverty.Many of the town’s residents spend their days wading in the trash, looking for bits of aluminum and plastic that they can exchange for a few dollars to support their family. Others, typically women, run roadside stands selling goods like fruit or medications. For many families, the profits from these microenterprises are the only way to put food on the table or to send children to school.Notre Dame and its Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity have been invested in Dandora for several years. Research projects and a Holy Cross parish have taken root. In speaking with the local population about their needs, the Ford Program asked a trio of Notre Dame economists — Wyatt Brooks, Kevin Donovan and Terry Johnson — to come to Dandora to explore problems surrounding unemployment.For more information: http://ntrda.me/FFEndPoverty

When your child is diagnosed with a rare, genetic disease, it feels like you’re rolling down a mountain, just waiting to hit rock bottom, says Doug Berns. When his daughter, Samantha, was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, an incurable, neurodegenerative disorder, he and his wife watched as Samantha’s energy depleted, her balance became shaky, and her laughter quieted.At Notre Dame, researchers in the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases seek to identify and advance treatments for a number of rare diseases, including Niemann-Pick Type C.For more information: http://ntrda.me/LivesofChildren

Perhaps no greater motivation exists in this world than hope. For the 450,000 Americans with spinal cord injuries, the hope that they can regain mobility, walk again, run again is often what pushes them through each therapy session. But those same patients often plateau in their recovery, and hope dwindles.Though he’s not a physician or physical therapist, Notre Dame engineering professor Jim Schmiedeler’s work may contribute to better success for these patients. In his locomotion and biomechanics lab, he uses tools from his biped robotics research to better understand the challenges spinal cord injuries present for those learning to walk again. By partnering with researchers at The Ohio State University, Schmiedeler can also test how lessons learned from experiments with the robots, which involve no risk to humans, can be translated into innovative therapeutic strategies that benefit patients. In doing so, he believes his work can help many of those individuals with a spinal cord injury to walk again.Read More: http://ntrda.me/WalkAgain

When Christy Burgess started the Robinson Shakespeare Company at Notre Dame's Robinson Community Learning Center in 2008, skeptics told her the local kids - the children of professors, of police officers, of felons - would never willingly study or perform Shakespeare.Fast forward several years and the Robinson Shakespeare Company just returned from a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of the famous bard, and led a workshop at the Globe Theatre in London. Needless to say, their enthusiasm for Shakespeare is unparalleled.But perhaps even more success has come from how it has changed the performers. They've learned skills in communication, confidence, working as an ensemble, and stepping out of their comfort zones. As Notre Dame's international Shakespeare scholar Prof. Peter Holland believes, they've proven the lessons of Shakespeare transcend all barriers and that Shakespeare's messages of love, hate and division still ring true today.Learn more: https://fightingfor.nd.edu/2017/fighting-for-shakespeare-for-all/

For ten years we've partnered with NBC to show you the people of Notre Dame who remind us what we stand for, what we strive for and what we fight for.Here's a look back at some of the causes we've fought for and people who have led the charge. See more at: http://ntrda.me/FightingForAnniversary